Rotatable support for photo-flash lamps



May 19, 1970 w. OTT 3,513,304

ROTATABLE SUPPORT FOR PHOTO--FLASH LAMPS Filed Sept. 13, 1967 FlG.3

INVEN TOR Wolfgang Ott ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,513,304 ROTATABLE SUPPORT FOR PHOTO- FLASH LAMPS Wolfgang Ott, Augsburg, Germany, assignor to Patent- Treuhand-Gesellschaft fur Elektrische Gluhlampen mbH, Munich, Germany, a corporation of Germany Filed Sept. 13, 1967, Ser. No. 667,596 Claims priority, application Germany, Sept. 28, 1966, P 28,014 Int. Cl. G03b 15/02 US. Cl. 2401.3 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A rotatable support carrying several photo-flash lamps for successive use. The support consisting of a body member having a generally cubical shape. The member is stable and self-supporting. It has hollows or recesses shaped to provide reflector surfaces. Each reflector surface is directed toward an opposite respective side of the cubical member that is in front of the reflector surface. Lamps are located in the reflector hollows or recesses. A protective light-passing sleeve surrounds the several upright sides and the top of the member thereby enclosing the lamps and reflectors. The member has slits at the backs of the reflectors. As a result, the member is flexibly resilient and affords resilient pressure toward and against the upright corners of the sleeve tending to stretch the sleeve circumferentially.

Rotatable supports for a plurality of photo-flash lamps 'have been provided by the prior art wherein reflectors have been formed in a strip of foil and thereafter folded in the form of a cube to position each reflector behind a respective lamp. The foil does not have the desirable attribute of self-support or rigidity, and its folding and mounting introduce difficulties in attempts at automatic manufacture and necessitates resorting to hand work to a considerable extent. The present invention, on the other hand, provides a stable, self-supporting body member having hollows constituting reflectors and receiving the photo-flash lamps therein instead of being made from the unstable folded foil. The member may be conveniently made of a suitable plastic material, such as foamed polystyrol, and is also susceptible to complete formation as a unitary body by injection molding, thereby adapting the entire support to automatic fabrication and assembly.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an injection-molded body member of stable self-supporting construction in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an elevation of said body member in its mounted position and with the protective sleeve, shown in cross-section, applied thereto;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken on dual-planes indicated by broken line 3-3 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 is a view on a larger scale of a lower corner portion of FIG. 2.

In the specific embodiment of the invention illustrated in said drawing, a body member 5 of generally cubical configuration is provided with a hollow in each side face in the form of and constituting reflectors 6. Said body is conveniently fabricated by injection molding or otherwise of a suitable plastic material, such as polystyrol, and constitutes a stable, self-supporting unitary entity in a form bounded chiefly by the top and side edges 7 of a cube, and partial bottom edges 7a. The reflectors 6 are for the most part paraboloidal with a vertical axis to the rear of which and parallel thereto in each reflector, is a vertical slit 8. In cross-section, said slits may be cruciform and in that instance unite upwardly with each other 3,513,304 Patented May 19, 1970 to form a hollow core in said body. Said slits extend from the bottom edges 9 of the reflectors upwardly toward but not quite to the tops of the reflectors. Of course each reflector provides a front opening 10 through the respective side face of the body 5, and as this opening extends to the bottom of the body, each reflector hollow opens through the bottom 9 as well as through the side face.

The finished support has a base plate 11 at the bottom of said cubical body member 5, said base plate making suitable provision for receiving flash lamps 12 in coaxial location within the reflectors. A light-passing sleeve 13, which may be described as simply a cubical box from which the bottom is missing, is applied over the body member and is therefore in protective relationship to the flash lamps 12. It is a feature of the invention that body member 5 shall be clamp-fitted within sleeve 13 so as to be practically immovable with respect thereto and cannot rattle. It may therefore now be pointed out that slits 8 divide the lower portion of the body member into the appearance of wings 21 having resilient flexibility within the range of the slot widths. Consequently during assembly of body member 5 and sleeve 13, lateral forceful pressure on the wings in direction of arrows A (FIG. 3) produces a deflection of the Wings in direction of arrows B, enabling the sleeve to be slid over the temporarily deformed body member. After such assembly, the wings tend to return to original positions and thereby exert expanding tension on the sleeve and tight, non-rattling, assembly.

Integral with said base plate 11, and coaxial therewith and at the underside thereof, is a base 14 for operatively mounting the support of the present invention in a known prior art rotatable socket (not shown) for successive presentation and flashing of the lamps at one quadrant of rotation. The base 14 provides contacts 15 leading individually to the several lamps and located to be successively positioned for energizing the one lamp presently at the quadrant of rotation where flashing is desired.

The base plate 11 has, on its upper face, a circumambient rib 16 spaced inwardly from the periphery of said base plate in a location adapted to be engaged by the bottom corner 17 of the body member 5 when assembled therewith. The height of said body member 5 plus the height of said rib 16 is made somewhat greater than the internal height of the protective sleeve 13, and before the sleeve makes contact with the base plate 11, the corner 17 of member 5 is softened or the assembly otherwise treated to sink the member by pressure into the rib and fuse or otherwise obtain at least punctiform engagement with and permanent attachment of said member to the base plate. The invention contemplates that such attachment may be by thermoplastic flow of either or both of the respective materials of body 5 at corners 17, and rib 16 where interengaging one with the other. consequential upon the sinking of the corner 17 with respect to rib 16, the bottom edge of the protective sleeve 13 is lowered into at least punctiform engagement with the upper surface of the base plate 11, and by supersonic vibration or other means is made fast to said base plate. By these described modes of assembly, the body member 5, sleeve 13 and base plate 11 are unified as a stable, self-supporting entity.

As a further detail of construction, it may be pointed out that the aforesaid hollows constituting reflectors 6 behind the location of the flash lamps 12, are constituted as trough-shaped depressions 18 for procuring room for the said lamps. The slits 8 terminate approximately at the upper ends of those trough-like depressions. Each reflector, though principally paraboloidal, has two lateral plane surfaces 20 from the said trough depression to the respective side face of the body member.

In conclusion, the invention comprises a rotatable support provided with a base plate 11 on the upper face of which, on a circle of rotation around the axis, are mounted with equi-distance spacing, four photo-flash lamps 12 each located in a hollow 6 constituted as a reflector at a respective side of a body member carried by and rotatable with said base plate. The body member 5 is preferably a plastic material and said hollows 6, which may be inherently reflective or made so by vaporizing metal thereon, are substantially paraboloidal and open through the respective side of the body member and also interrupt the edges 9 of the member Where abutting against the base plate 11. Said body member 5 thus providing the four reflectors 6, is a stable and self-supporting structure of generally cubical form and has an enwrapping protective sleeve 13 of light-passing material clamp-fitted thereover by virtue of slits 8 in the backs 18 of the reflectors extending for a considerable portion of the height of said member, affording resilient flexibility of said member in the assembly of the sleeve thereover. The construction utilizes a sleeve 13, closed at its top and with sides too short to initially engage base plate 11, but by a forceful compression and seal between the body member 5 and plate 11, the sleeve is brought into contact with the plate and then united thereto by supersonic or other mode of sealing operation. The upper end of the sleeve 13 being closed and overlying the body member 5, thereby has its ceiling pressed into contact with the top of said body member, eliminating all clearance thereat, and by virtue of clamp-fitted sides, and sealing thereof to the base plate, there is no possible outer-part movement or rattle. The support is, by the construction described, susceptible to automatic fabrication and assembly and is stable and selfsupporting.

I claim:

1. A rotatable support carrying a plurality of photoflash lamps and provided with a base plate on which said lamps are mounted for successive use on rotation of said support, said support comprising a body member carried by and rotatable with said base plate, said body member having hollows each receiving a respective lamp therein, said hollows constituting reflectors, characterized in that said member is of plastic material thereby providing a stable self-supporting body retaining a predetermined fixed shape and relation of reflectors and over-all configuration, and a light-passing sleeve conforming to the over-all configuration of the body member in tight enwrapping contact therewith at sides and top thereof and enclosing said lamps within said hollows, said body member having slits at the rear of said hollows rendering the said member resiliently flexible for applying clampfitting of the member within said sleeve.

2. A support in accordance with claim 1, wherein said hollows are made reflective by vaporizing metal thereon.

3. A support in accordance with claim 1, wherein said hollows constituting the reflectors are principally paraboloidal and have each a trough-like depression receiving the flash lamp and each has two lateral plane faces from the respective said depression, and wherein said slits have a length from the bottom of said member to substantially the height of said plane faces above said bottom.

4. A support in accordance with claim 1, wherein said resiliency of said member exerts pressure diagonally of the same toward the upright corners of said member, tending to stretch said sleeve circumferentially.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,090,118 8/1937 Graf 240-10 3,309,513 3/1967 Aymar 240-13 3,315,070 4/1967 PfeflYerle 240-l.3 3,327,105 6/1967 Kottler et al. 240-13 3,358,131 12/1967 Bennett et al 240-13 NORTON ANSHER, Primary Examiner F. L. BRAUN, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 240-103 

